Unlike the famous Route 66 filled with Americana kicks and quirkiness, Highway I-70 is an elegant time machine through spectacular layered sediments and rock formations billions of years in the making. Built in the 1970’s, every turn brings the traveler through high canyon walls and sweeping views.

The I-70 bisects the San Rafael Swell geological formation and along the way is the Ghost Rock rest stop that could easily be a destination.

The bright blue sky with puffy clouds accented the creamy rock formations and cheerful flowers and provided the perfect picnic spot. A little exploration walk took us to an amazing overlook where cowboys and their cattle, Mormon homesteaders in their wagon trains, ancient native cultures and mammoths, and the prehistoric creatures we were tracking each traversed this part of the Colorado Plateau.

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The Colorado Plateau is an uplifted geological formation and home to the “Mighty Five” national parks of Arches, Canyonlands, Coral Reef, Bryce, and Zion. It is also the site of numerous national monuments. The uplift is millions of years old and radiates from the four corners region of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. The high desert landscape contains rocky canyons, badlands, and is rich with fossils, rock art and abandoned communities.

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Thompson Springs, UT

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Our base camp for exploring this area of the Colorado Plateau was Ballard RV Park in Thompson Springs, UT.

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Simply stated, we chose Thompson Springs for its proximity to, or rather, distance from, the crowds converging upon the national parks and the vibrant town of Moab. What we discovered in Thompson Springs, however, were abandoned buildings and mines, a canyon filled with 8,000 year old rock art, and a friendly community struggling to renovate and rejuvenate the once thriving ranching and industrial hub. It also introduced us to the best treat for the hot desert climate… the SevenEleven Limoncello slushie!

Just north of Thompson Springs is Sego Canyon. Coal mining was once a lucrative business here and among the abandoned mine shafts are paintings and drawings thousands of years old. Three separate eras of pictographs (painted) and petroglyphs (etched) from 6000 BC to 1800 AD are displayed on the Sego Canyon walls. Although heavily vandalized, the figures, animals and shapes record haunting, mysterious messages of the Ute, Fremont and Archaic Barrier cultures.

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Moab, UT

Known as the gateway to the “Mighty Five,” Moab has an artistic vibe and contains great dining, lodging, and recreation choices.

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In addition to the national parks, state parks and BLM (Bureau of Land Management) sites containing rock art, ancient ruins, breathtaking scenery, dinosaur fossils, and the Colorado and Green Rivers are located throughout the area. No wonder the crowds converge here!

We chose to spend the majority of our time exploring the dinosaur fossil sites which are located off the beaten path and a less busy. Our first stop was Copper Ridge Dinosaur Tracksite. Tracksites are footprints left in the hardened sandstone and reveal size, speed, and even health of the creatures that roamed this area. Copper Ridge – the site of the first discovery of tracks in Utah . Located in the geological layers of the Morrison Formation along the Salt Marsh, tracks were left by both sauropods (plant-eaters) and theropods (meat-eaters) of the Jurassic age. Paleontologist identified that one of the theropods in this trackway was limping and one of the sauropods made a hard right turn to move in a different direction. Apatosaurus, Diplodocus and Allosaurus were listed as the probable track-makers. It was amazing to be able to stand near the tracks and recognize 3-clawed toes of the meat-eaters and saucer-like prints of the huge plant-eaters made 150 million years ago!

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A little family of pronghorns now happily leap and run where dinosaurs once tread.

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Moab Giants Dinosaur Park

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Moab is filled with places to explore, discover and learn! Continuing our dinosaur journey, we spent a few hours at this museum campus. The park includes an interactive multi-media museum, an aquarium, a half-mile outdoor trail through the ages of the dinosaurs with life size models throughout, and plenty of play areas for children. It sparked our imagination to see the outdoor dinosaur exhibits staged on the very land the giants once inhabited.

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Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite and Bone Trail

Following a dirt road onto BLM land, we arrived at the Mill Canyon Dinosaur tracksite in the Cedar Mountain geological formation. Over 200 tracks have been identified, making this one of the largest and most diverse tracksites in North America from the Early Cretaceous period. Boardwalks and marked paths loop around the ancient mud flat. In addition to tracks, slide marks at the edges indicate creatures must have sometimes slid into the soft mud. Not only dinosaurs, but crocodilian reptiles, birds, mammals, ferns and conifers have all left evidence of their presence in this area.

Further into Mill Canyon is the Dinosaur Bone Trail which follows a different geological layer — the Morrison Formation. Fossilized bones, petrified wood, and other treasures have been left in the rock from the Jurassic period (older than the tracksite). Many bone fossils take on a dark greyish-purple color and are broken up into pieces lodged in the rock, sometimes along the same plane or scattered about the rock face. Often just the tip of a bone is visible in the wall with the rest of it extending (unseen) behind it, deep into the rock. Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, Camarasaurus, Camptosaurus and other Jurassic dinosaurs and plant fossils have been found here. Utah decided to leave the fossils in place along this trail for visitors to gain a perspective of the discovery and excavation skills of the paleontologist as well as a geological context. A snake crossed our path while we were exploring, too!

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Utah Highway 279 Rock Art Site

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North of Moab and lining both sides of the Colorado River are pictographs and petroglyphs left by people of the Archaic (6,000 – 1,000 B.C.) and the Fremont (450 – 1350 A.D.) cultural periods. Known as the Moonflower Canyon and Kane Creek sites, we used our binoculars to locate intricate and intriguing figures etched into the red rock walls. In contrast to our prehistoric musings, rafters, booming drum & bass mixes from a towed dinghy, floated down the river with coolers, adult beverages, and waves.

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Dinosaur Stomping Grounds

Rounding out our dinosaur discovery expedition of the Moab area, we hiked to the Dinosaur Stomping Grounds which is located on BLM land at the edge of a beautiful valley overlook. The tracks were made during the Jurassic period and the sandstone slabs of the Curtis Formation here contain over 2300 tracks. Once the shoreline of an inland sea, the sandy surface hardened to form the two acre Moab Megatracksite. The jumble of tracks pointing every which way revealed the three-toed tracks of the meat-eating theropods and the disc shaped tracks of the huge plant-eating sauropods. The trail to the grounds wound through beautiful rock formations and juniper trees as well as an unusual line of eroded holes in which tadpoles gathered in the accumulated water puddles.

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Canyonlands National Park and the Moab Ravens

In the high desert of Utah and in the heart of the Colorado Plateau, the great Colorado and Green Rivers converge. More than 325k acres have been designated as Canyonlands National Park with about the same amount of BLM land and state parks surrounding it. Divided into four separate districts, Canyonlands has some of the most remote terrain of any of the national parks. Our visit to the most popular “Island in the Sky” district gave us a bird’s eye view of the vastly carved landscape.

Speaking of birds…as we waited in a line of cars to enter the park, we were literally panhandled by a raven. Walking along the line of cars, it would stop at the passenger window of each vehicle looking for tasty morsels to be thrown by soft hearted visitors. When no treats issued forth, it continued on down the line to the next vehicle until it was successfully rewarded with a bit of food. As the cars moved past the entrance kiosk, it flew back to the beginning of the line and began again. Ravens are known for extreme intelligence, and this one was a credit to its breed! We encountered several of these avian buskers in the park and around the city of Moab.

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CAMPGROUND REVIEW: BALLARD RV PARK

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We stayed at Ballard RV Park located in Thompson Springs, UT. Easy access to both I-70 and Highway 191, the park is gravel and sand with RV sites, cottages, and tent sites. We had a full hook-up, pull-thru site which was spacious and required one set of levelers. We were cautioned at check-in about the very high water pressure. Picnic tables and fire rings are first come first served to be relocated to your site if available. Three individual restroom/shower rooms and two sets of washer/dryers were located in the office building. All facilities were clean and in good working order. WiFi was sufficient for light use and we had 3 bars of T-Mobile service. Each office staff member was friendly and cheerful and provided helpful information for exploring the area. About 35 miles north of the city of Moab, we appreciated being away from the crowds yet close enough for day trips to the area’s parks and recreational sites.

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Next up…Dinosaur Diamond: Colorado!

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